1. Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, Charles Manson & the Birth of Cults: A Twitter Essay. (warning: this will run long).
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Replying to @HeerJeet
2. There is an apocryphal story that Robert Heinlein & L. Ron Hubbard made a bar bet in late 1940s as to who could create a better religion
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3. This story is almost certainly false. The reality is far stranger. Relationship between Heinlein & Hubbard gave birth to many cults.
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4. Heinlein and Hubbard both emerged as major writers of pulp science fiction in late 1930s.
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5. They were both major writers for Astounding, which mistakenly celebrated in s.f. circles as home to "hard" (scientifically plausible) sf
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6. Important to understand that rationality of hard s.f. was always a facade, at heart it was a religion of mysticism.
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7. At core of hard sf was desire for new forms of transcendence in world where traditional religions challenged by science: sense of wonder
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8. Heinlein & Hubbard met in 1939 & hit it off immediately. Heinlein: Hubbard "is our kind of people in every possible way."
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9. When Heinlein really liked a man, he would encourage his wife Leslyn to sleep with the buddy. This happened with Hubbard.
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9B. Heinlein "almost forced me to sleep with his wife,” Hubbard marveled during World War II. A ménage à trois was born.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
10. During WWII, Heinlein desperately wanted to serve Navy but barred b/c disability and left-wing activism. Hubbard was in Navy.
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10B. Hubbard made up many stories about his wartime heroics, which Heinlein rather credulously accepted.
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